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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RatPunk" data-source="post: 1910540" data-attributes="member: 1246">Chapter 8 - Temple and Tower, Part 3The door was covered in runes and had silver nails driven into it to hold it down. As an added precaution, someone had also wedged silver pieces into the gaps all the way around the edge. Somebody didn’t want something to get out of there. The use of silver, a common ward against the undead, quickly brought all of our minds back to the vampire rumors. Then we noticed that the most predominant rune on the door looked familiar. Jeb brought out the amulet that he had taken from Corian when we’d first met him.It matched.We meekly assured each other that we were ready for whatever lurked below and Jeb passed the amulet over the door. There was a slight click and the door sprang open. With what seemed like a deafening clatter, all the silver pieces fell to the floor below. So much for the element of surprise.Once again the rush of air from below brought nasty surprises to our noses. This time, however, it was the unmistakable smell of death. Against our better judgement, we peered over the edge to take a look.It appeared to have been some sort of lab. It was circular like the room we were in, but there was a door on one side. The floor was strewn with candles, tubes and glassware, six statues lined the walls, and there was another trapdoor. As before, there was no way down. Fortunately, we had Jackie’s never ending coil of rope. It looked like we were going to put a lot of it to use. Once we had descended, we went about the business of sifting through the stuff on the floor. Ever the curious sort, Jeb had gone to check out the door. He had just opened it when the "statues" attacked. You would think that they would have been the first things we’d check out, but for whatever reason, we hadn’t, so we missed the fact that they were actually zombies in chainmail. With the zombies down off their pedestals and mixing it up with us, there wasn’t a lot of room left for maneuvering and weapon swinging, but we did our best. There was a momentary scare as what appeared to be rot grubs started dropping out of the zombies’ eye sockets, but we quickly determined that they were merely ordinary worms. Then Peshal remembered that he was a priest. Holding his holy symbol before him, he demanded that the zombies flee. They tried, but with nowhere to go, they settled for cowering against the walls. We quickly turned them into the ex-undead.We took a second to catch our breath and finished looking through the stuff on the floor. Jeb discovered a couple of books in the side room and threw them into his pack. We’d have them checked out more thoroughly when we got back to town. Then it was back to the trapdoor.We opened it and had a look. As before, there was no way down. Eralion had obviously never heard of stairs or ladders. This time, the room below was very obviously a tomb. Not just any tomb, but Eralion’s tomb. Directly below us was a large stone sarcophagus sitting atop a raised, black dais. Both of them were covered in intricately carved ruins and hieroglyphs. There were papers and glass shards on the floor next to the dais. Lying across the lid was a skeleton clothed in what had once been fine robes. It clutched a staff in one hand.Six coffins lined the wall.We looked at each other nervously. All of us knew we were doomed if there was even one vampire below, much less six. Still, we were here for a purpose, so we took a collective deep breath and threw the rest of Jackie’s rope down.We hit the floor one at a time and spread out quickly. Nobody wanted to touch the coffins, so we gave them as wide a berth as possible in the small room. Rumblethorn was interested in the staff, but before he could grab it, Jeb and Jackie both motioned for silence. Jeb cocked his head to the side as if listening to something. Slowly he nodded and spoke:"Yes, it’s Fariblan. Is that you, Eralion?"Uh-oh, I didn’t like the sound of this. Jeb nodded again and slowly a patch of darkness formed in front of him. It took on a more or less human form. Eralion hadn’t made it to lichhood, he’d become a shadow. He motioned slowly to Jeb, who continued to listen. We were all beginning to make out the faint voice of the dead wizard."Fariblan", it whispered."I’m here. How can we help?" replied Jeb."Redemption.""Um, ok. How?""Chapel."Jeb looked at us. We were too dumbfounded to offer much more than a shrug as advice."Uh… sure. We can take you to the chapel." He said, none too convincingly.Fortunately, the undead apparently can’t hear nervousness. No sooner had the words left Jeb’s lips than Eralion was floating towards the trapdoor. We scrambled up the rope after him. Apparently, he didn’t want to be redeemed by himself, because he waited for us all to climb the rope to the top. Once we’d pulled ourselves out, he started drifting across the courtyard towards the chapel.We were moving faster than Eralion was, since we thought it a good idea to prepare Ogmund for what we’d found. Jackie hit the door first."Um… Brother Ogmund? We have a small problem we could use your help with…"He didn’t have time to say anything else. Eralion drifted into the chapel. Ogmund’s eyes grew wide and he dropped the bucket of cleaning water he’d been holding. "Blasphemer!" Ogmund yelled and started unleashing spells at the shadow. We dove quickly out of the way.Eralion turned to Jeb and, in a much louder voice now, screeched something about him being a traitor and a liar. That was enough for me. I drew Valkyria and leapt to the attack. Jeb muttered something under his breath about Ogmund’s hasty attack and Jackie quickly positioned himself between the gnome and the priest, just in case.Ogmund picked up his cudgel and stepped forward. The rest of us did what we could to help, but the battle was mostly Ogmund’s and it was over quickly. Eralion was dispatched once and for all. Ogmund gave us a quick, almost accusatory glance, then picked up his bucket and returned to his cleaning.We stood there for a moment. Should we try to explain to Ogmund or just go and finish searching the tomb? We went back to the tomb to grab whatever we could find. Aside from the staff, we recovered a ceremonial dagger and a pair of bracers from Eralion’s corpse. We tried for what seemed like hours before we finally managed to pry the lid off of the sarcophagus. Inside was an assortment of coins, gems and jewelry. We threw everything into a bag and went back up to the courtyard.A quick check with Ogmund confirmed that he wanted to stay and continue his cleaning, so we bade farewell and set off for town. We found Shandril and Arlen conferring together near the temples and we told them about Brother Ogmund and Eralion. They were both very appreciative of our efforts. Arlen reached into his pocket and handed us a key. He was giving us use of the noble guesthouse for as long as we remained in town. Sweet!Before we left to round up the dwarves and move into our new digs, I unstrapped Valkyria and offered it back to Shandril. She touched it with one hand, closed her eyes for a second and said "You are not yet done with it". I knew what she really meant. She wanted to keep me around for a while! No problem, I could play that game.Once we had packed up our things at the Drunken Cockatrice, Corian spoke up. Corian! He’d been so helpful lately that I’d almost forgotten he was with us! He asked Jeb if he could have the amulet back now that we were done with it. Jeb took it out, looked it over for a minute, then said "What the hell" and tossed it to him. And just like that Corian said goodbye, grabbed his stuff and walked out the door. He didn’t even ask for a share of the treasure. Maybe he wasn’t such a bad guy after all...</blockquote>

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